The Imperial Meme

Tell 'em how you really feel, Joshua Foust:

"Afghanistan in 2009 is not Afghanistan in 1839. If a Russian looked at American Civil War history and used that as a justification for some kind of policy toward America, he’d be laughed out of the planning session. Why we think it’s okay to look 160 years into our past for ideas for Afghanistan, when we can look to the 1990s and 2000s is beyond my ability to understand."

Foust is right. A deep knowledge of historical trends and political cultures in a state can be used as a means of understanding it. But extrapolating from a sole data point 160 years ago to create plans for foreign policy is questionable at best. The enthusiasm, however, for looking at British solutions is not likely to go away. If comparing America to Rome was all the rage in 2002-2003, the implicit foreign policy meme is that the US is Britain during the "Indian Summer" of the late 19th century. While there are many similarities to the US and Britain (e.g. both are primarily sea powers), we should not take the metaphor too far.